Wessler: Zone defense a layup for BU's opposition

PEORIA — I'm starting to wonder if this Bradley basketball team is less than the sum of its parts.

Kirk Wesslerof the Journal Star

PEORIA — I'm starting to wonder if this Bradley basketball team is less than the sum of its parts.

The Braves have some formidable talent. Walt Lemon Jr. proved himself last season to be a premier guard in the Missouri Valley, a candidate for conference Player of the Year coming into this season. Tyson Pickett is a solid front-line player. Newcomer Auston Barnes has been a steady contributor. Omari Grier's track record as a 3-point shooter is good. Up and down the roster, BU has size, length, athleticism and enough talent to be successful.

Put the players together in a game, though, and they look as bad as a choir of tone-deaf 10-year-olds would sound singing something as simple as "Do-Re-Mi."

The Braves' 65-61 loss to IPFW on Tuesday at Carver Arena was painful to watch. The visiting Mastodons led most of the game. Bradley took a one-point lead in the final minute, but it lasted only 11 seconds. The saddest part was, as soon as IPFW regained the lead with 30 seconds to play, you knew Bradley wouldn't score again. Not in 30 seconds. Not in 60.

"We make one more play, and you're sitting here talking about how we just beat a good team and it's a great win," Bradley coach Geno Ford said.

Not really. First, I wouldn't classify IPFW as a particularly good team. I'm more inclined to agree with Mastodons head coach Tony Jasick, who said, "We've got a nice team, but we're not outlandish with our talent." And I simply won't classify a win over a "nice" team without "outlandish talent" as "great."

Ever.

Then comes the simple fact that Bradley's offense struggles to make plays. This is especially true against zone defenses, which is pretty much all the Braves have seen this season. As long as they continue to shoot poorly and pass poorly, no coach of sound mind would play man-to-man defense against this Bradley team.

"Our guys are not incapable," Ford said. "That's the difficult thing to handle."

If that's the case, the Braves should get nominated for an Academy Award. Call it Best Performance by a Team Feigning Ineptitude.

The problem begins with Lemon. He is Bradley's most dangerous offensive player, but also its most reckless. He's trying to play point guard, but it's not working out. Lemon is not a classic 2-guard, either, because he's not effective getting open without the ball. Even if he were, he hasn't shown an ability to catch and shoot. He must have the ball in his hands, and his game is beating defenders to the rim.

Getting to the rim is difficult against a zone, but Lemon is doing it. Once he gets there, though, he's not finishing. If there were a statistic for missed layups, Lemon might be leading the MVC during nonconference play. Granted, these are not layup-line shots, but a Division I guard must be able to finish a high percentage, in traffic or off-balance.

"Walt's obviously a great finisher," Ford said.

Not this year, he hasn't been, though.

And Lemon's ball-handling has been awful. He committed eight turnovers Tuesday, raising his season average to a hair under four per game. Bradley hasn't had a guard who threw the ball away with such regularity since another spectacularly athletic but erratic player, Eric Roberson, regularly sent crowds from euphoria to depression in the 1990s.

Lemon is not the only problem, though. The entire offense is out of sync. The Braves have not been able to get the ball into the post against the zones, in part because the poor outside shooting allows defenses to pack the middle. When the ball does get to the post, the interior passing is lacking.

One-third of the regular season is now gone. There's a long way to go, but the pressure to improve quickly is rising. And there's enough pressure on these coaches and this team already.

Until the Braves figure out the zones, though, they're in for more of the same.

That doesn't make for a happy holiday.

KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. He can be reached at kwessler@pjstar.com, or 686-3216. Read his Captain's Blog at blogs.pjstar.com/wessler/. Follow him on Twitter @KirkWessler.

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